Interviews

Schatzi

Interview with Monty & Chris on Nov 30, 1999 by Archive Bot

Thanks to Mike Cubillos at Earshot Media and of course, Schatzi for being so awesome and fun. For more info on them check out www.schatzi.net and check out their new album "Fifty Reasons to Explode" out on Mammoth Records. Pictures courtesy of schatzi.net.

PB: Ok it's recording......
Monty: Say that we threw lit fireworks at you and tried to blow you up.

PB: Hah, I will. Alright. Why is Austin your "adopted" hometown?
Monty: Well in Oklahoma, while we were there, there was only like.... 

PB: Ok wait, you all grew up there?
Monty: Yeah, yeah.
Chris: Well three of us are from Oklahoma, one of us is an Austin native. Monty: Yeah. Well there are only like three venues to play and after a while you play them over and over and over and it's just like, we gotta get the hell out of here. So we moved to Austin in.....92?
Chris: 92, 93. Well you guys were there in the end of 92...wait, no, we were all there at the end of 92.
Monty: Actually the date was September 5th 1992 that is when we left Oklahoma.

PB: And you all went to Austin and lived together?
Monty: We did.
Chris: The whole band lived in a 5 bedroom apartment. In the begining, with 2 of our friends. So it was kinda packed.
Monty: It was really cool though.

PB: Yeah that's wicked.
Chris: Yeah I was roommates with this guy for years and years.

PB: Did you play and practice in your apartment?
Chris: Um, no.
Monty: But we have. We used to practice in this apartment, the one on 33rd, in our old band. It was like a 6 plex aparatment house. Somehow we had a key to one apartment, one room that was in it and abandonded.
Chris: So we'd take our entire band and go set up in there and like no one ever cared.

PB: No one complained you were making too much noise?
Monty: No, because it was sort of a crackhouse. So no one would call the cops for anything. You could have huge parties and no one would care because no one wanted the cops there at all. No one.
Chris: Yeah, there was a prostitute and a crack dealer in the basement.

PB: So wait, did you guys move to there specifically because of your music?
Monty: To Austin or to the crackhouse? *Laugh*

PB: Austin...
Monty: Ha, ya we moved there because we wanted to play music and there were a ton of venues there to play and so, it was the music capital of the world....

PB: Cause you also said you guys did it for years without anything.
Chris: Well, like for free and no one cared or gave us money or came to our shows. You know that kind of thing.

PB: So how did you survive?
Monty: We had jobs. Day jobs.

PB: What kind?
Monty: I'm kind of a cook, a cooking freak. Like I love to cook. So I worked in kitchens and stuff. Diners, shit like that. I made the blue plate special and all that stuff.
Chris: He had his own sandwich named after him too.

PB: Really? What was it called?
Monty: Monty's Python. It was awesome. It was a spinach patty mixed with feta cheese and onion soup mix and you fry that on a flat grill or whatever and then you take a hashnbrown and a peice of swiss cheese and a tomatoe. Put it on there, you know. People loved it. Loved it. It was weird.

PB: They were obsessed. Does it still exisit?
Monty: Yeah. You can go and have the Monty's Python.

PB: You guys think you're dorks?
Chris: Well, take a look.

PB: You're not really dorks. But the thing is now being a dork is cool.
Monty: Exactly. No I'm kidding. We are the biggest geeks on the planet.

PB: Why?
Monty: I don't know.
Chris: We're just nerds.

PB: Yeah, but why. Explain.
Chris: Once a nerd always a nerd. We were never cool.
Monty: We're not all rockstarish.

PB: In the ego sense?
Monty: Yeah.
Chris. No, we're not rockstar in any sense.

PB: No, not true. On stage, you're pretty rockstar-ish. You have the stage presence. I am all about the stage presence.
Monty: Thanks. Wow, you rock.
Chris: Whatever you say is true...

PB: Well all I'm saying is that dorks are cool now.
Chris: Well if dorks are cool, then we're the fucking coolest. *Laugh*

PB: It's just cause I always wonder why people think they're dorks or nerds or whatever. Everyone is cool.
Monty: Yeah. Well we're just music geeks and we collect things that are kind of....

PB: Like what?
Monty: Well. Like I love fireworks. I LOVE them and that's kinda nerdy.
Chris: When I was a kid I collected stamps. I don't do that anymore but I did.
Monty: Yeah, that's kind of nerdy.
Chris: I still have my whole collection. Like 3,000 stamps.

PB: Are they all organized and stuff?
Monty: This guy is super organized. He's the guy that knows all the books. He can figure out any way to like, if you need to figure out how much tax is going to be taken out, he can organize it all in his head and do it.
Chris: I'm actually not good at math. I don't know how I do it. You just have to like sit down and do it.

PB: You're probably the kind of person in math class that I used to hate because you don't have to study or practice or anything you just know how to do it.
Monty: Yeah, totally.
Chris: No, I'm terrible at math. It's just when it comes to the money, tight math, I have to do it. I'm the defective band accountant.

PB: Doesn't Kliph do that?
Chris: No he just sits around and drinks beer. No he's our roadie. He moves stuff and sells merch and stuff. I like calling people a roadie. It's just so funny for some reason. I like it because it's kind of demeaning, but it's a joke at the same time.

PB: Yeah.
Monty: I just shot gunned a beer, it was awesome.

PB: What's that?
Monty: When you poke a hole in the bottom and then suck it out and it just comes all out like whoosh.

PB: Dude I wanted to see.
Monty: I just did it right here.
Chris: It's an old frat party trick. We used to be in frats.

PB: You did?
Chris: No, I'm kidding.

PB: Did you go to school?
Chris: For a little while and then we dropped out. We went to a cheap community college kind of thing.
Monty: Yeah but I did really well on my SAT's, I made like a 31.

PB: I have no idea what that means, we don't do SAT's. We have grade 13.
Chris: So that means that you have like seniors and then what elderlies? An extra year that's weird.
Monty: What's the like cool place in Canada? Is Vancouver cool?

PB: No Canada is not cool.
Chris: Do you speak French. How do you say sweetheart because that's what Schatzi means.

PB: Um, I don't know. I can speak French, don't test me.
*Laugh*
PB: So you said you're a pop band.
Chris: Yup, we're pop.

PB: Ok other good pop bands?
Chris: I consider these guys one of the best pop bands.

PB: Ultimate Fakebook? They're so not pop.
Chris: They're as pop as it gets.
Monty: I think we're talking about for lack of a better term a pop band. We're not an emo band...we're not...

PB: You're not a rock band.
Monty: Well I think we're that too. We're both.
Chris: You can be a rock band and not be a pop band. Like hard rock.

PB: Like what?
Monty: Like Def Leppard.
Chris: Yeah, but they're pretty poppy for a rock band. Anyways, when I say pop I mean song writing, like we have melodies and catchy riffs and that kind of thing. Tunes, so even if our music is loud sometimes or quiet it's still pop.

PB: Hey you guys are one of the bands to look out for in 2002.
Monty: You read that?
Chris: Are you looking out?

PB: Dude, always. Once again, the stage presence....
Monty: Yeah, you gotta be able to play live. There is no better advertising than to go and be right in front of the person and say this is what we are, this is what we do, bam! Nothing better.

PB: That's totally true, that's why I don't get bands that don't tour. They'll put out a cd and I'll forget about it.
Monty: Yeah and you can never really tell. The live stuff is the substance.

PB: And if you don't tour it kinda, I don't know means that... the fact that you're touring non-stop means you love it...
Monty: Yeah, we're living it we love it so much.
Chris: Cause anyone can put out an album. And I'm not critisising those bands that don't tour because for a long time we couldn't tour. For stupid reasons. Like you put out records and then you go to your day job everyday and it sucks. You want to be in a band full time, and you should be out driving around playing every day. It's hard to get there. But you gotta do it and if you don't want to then it makes no sense to play really.

PB: You gotta weigh the options.
Chris: You gotta put stuff on hold.
Monty: There are a lot of people who play music as a hobby but if you want to make it a living you have to turn it around where your work is not important... your music is. Work is what you do on the side and music is what you do for real.

PB: So you guys must love going to "work" everyday.
Chris: Yup, it's a tough 9 to 5 but you gotta do it. No, our day job is driving in the van and then we get to the town and it's like woooo, we're off work. The playing is the fun part. Driving is technically the work. Our shift is like how long the drive is. It's still cooler than like making telemarketing calls.

PB: Yeah but you can make that drive interesting.
Monty: Yeah we have a Sega back there and we read and stuff. Sometimes I get hypnotized by the road and I fall asleep.

PB: You can read in the car? Don't you get dizzy cause of the motion?
Monty: No.
Chris: All I do is sit and try and read.
Monty: I usually read like half a magazine article and then I get bored and throw it away and then look out the window and then I get bored of that and then I try and play Sega.

PB: Do you jump over the seats and stuff?
Monty: Oh totally, we crawl all over. Around. And then I'm like well, time to go to sleep.

PB: Do you play games between you guys?
Monty: Like 99 bottles of beer on the wall?

PB: No!
Chris: We have computer chess, that's about it.